allow themselves to be blinded; how any one could avoid suspecting
some deception, when seven florins only were allowed to defray
expenses twice as great. But I have myself known people who
believed, without any visible astonishment, that their house
possessed the prophet's never-failing cruse of oil.

JULY 13.

No, I am not deceived. In her dark eyes I read a genuine interest
in me and in my fortunes. Yes, I feel it; and I may believe my
own heart which tells me -- dare I say it? -- dare I pronounce
the divine words? -- that she loves me!

That she loves me! How the idea exalts me in my own eyes! And,
as you can understand my feelings, I may say to you, how I honour
myself since she loves me!

Is this presumption, or is it a consciousness of the truth? I do
not know a man able to supplant me in the heart of Charlotte; and
yet when she speaks of her betrothed with so much warmth and
affection, I feel like the soldier who has been stripped of his
honours and titles, and deprived of his sword.

JULY 16.

How my heart beats when by accident I touch her finger, or my feet
meet hers under the table! I draw back as if from a furnace; but
a secret force impels me forward again, and my senses become
disordered. Her innocent, unconscious heart never knows what agony
these little familiarities inflict upon me. Sometimes when we